Provare dolore è naturale. Superarlo è una questione di scelta.

Να κόψω τα μαλλιά μου; Ποτέ! Εξακολουθούσα να τα μακραίνω ασταμάτητα. Το όνειρό μου ήταν κάποια μέρα να ζήσω μέσα τους.(Middlesex)

What's the first thing a kid says when he learns how to talk? 'Tell me a story.' That's how we understand who we are, where we come from. Stories are everything. [179]

Hij keek Madeleine aan. Misschien was ze toch niet zo bijzonder. Ze was zijn ideaal, maar een vroege versie daarvan, en hij zou er mettertijd wel overheen komen. Hij lachte haar een beetje sullig toe. Hij had nu een beter gevoel over zichzelf, alsof hij misschien nog wel eens iets zou kunnen bereiken.

Until we came to Baker &Inglis my friends and I had always felt completely American. But now the Bracelets’ upturned noses suggested that there was another America to which we could never gain admittance. All of a sudden America wasn’t about hamburgers and hot rods anymore. It was about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. It was about something that had happened for two minutes four hundred years ago, instead of everything that had happened since. Instead of everything that was happening now!